Part 1

“What do you mean?”

In a distinctive and characteristic office-looking room, a man wearing overly noble and affluent clothes with a mix of purple and blue sat on a table, reading a piece of paper.

The type of leggings he wore looked overly sagged and he had weird discs on his neck. His torso clothes were of very vibrant colours and shape, similar to a jester’s outfit, but even so, it was considered a noble’s attire.

This was clothing that looked atypical even to other nobles.

But to this man, it was only to be expected.

He was Irwys Fynn Tyrat, his branch family ‘Fynn’ was the strongest in the Tyrat House making him the head of the Noble house of Tyrat.

He was about 40 years old with only a few strands of grey hairs on his cleanly slick and combed-back brown hair. His face was shaven, because of that his defined and wide jaws were all to be seen.

And in contrary to popular belief of rich and powerful nobles: Irwys was not overweight in any means, rather he was bulky and muscular, keeping up with his image as the head of the Tyrat House.

The Tyrat House was the second strongest noble house in the Kingdom, with the Cinage House being the strongest overall in all aspects: Contribution to people and kingdom, money, manpower, prestige, connections, and anything that can contribute to power.

Irwys was a very bitter man and was a slave to power.

He would do anything to achieve greater power. And he does, he does a lot.

Assassination, kidnapping, ransom, hush money.

But there was an obstacle: The Cinage House.

The Cinage House was the strongest House in the Kingdom, which irritated Irwys.

He had fought with the Cinage house behind the scenes many times before, only to win here and then. But if spoken in terms of “war”, then he lost the decisive battles and is, as a result, on the losing side of the war.

Because of this, he had decided to knock the Cinage House from its weakest.

With that, Irwys orchestrated the attack on the Osoric Branch Family, this was because the Osoric Branch Family was the weakest branch of the Cinage House.

By knocking from the bottom up, the Cinage House would eventually fall.

This was going to be a battle of time, a decade at least.

But something extraordinary had happened.

“Forgive me, Lord Irwys. It’s the truth, we haven’t been able to contact the attack force in the Signe Region for quite a while now.”

Irwys placed the paper regarding the details down, focusing his attention on his servant standing before him.

“Then, I presume you’ve taken necessary action for this?”

Any Head Servant who couldn’t do something as much as to take actions for his Lord after an incident wasn’t worth being hired.

This man was the Head Servant of the Tyrat House.

“Of course. After investigating, it seems like the plan fell apart, our mercenaries have been murdered, the attack failed… and-“

The Head Servant stopped there.

Losing mercenaries wasn’t a bad thing.

They’re just mercenaries.

And since the Head Butler of the Osoric Estate was a Saint-Class Magician, it was expected for them to be obliterated.

Rather, there were plans to also take the Head Butler, Radyn, out with Exquisite-Class Swordsmen.

Irwys assumed the servant stammered to say, ‘Radyn was successfully assassinated.”

“Go on.”

Irwys smirked.

“The Exquisite-Class Swordsmen have been captured…”

Huh?

What does he mean?

Irwys thought to himself.

Did his ears fall out? Is he getting old? No, he’s still 40, while that was old it wasn’t old enough to ruin ears unless you were irresponsible.

“Excuse me? How bold of you to make jokes when we’re discussing something very important, do you want your daughter to be hurt?" 

The Head Servant bit his lip and just barely hid his sour expression.

Irwys’s Head Servant was being forced to work with his daughter held as a hostage. Not the best method to get someone to serve under you, but this Head Servant was special.

He could cast strong magic, a genius, practically sound, a great leader, and a family lover.

Anyone with even one of these qualities was very useful, but this man had it all.

The Head Servant was tempted to cast attack magic at Irwys but held himself back, he knew full well what would happen to his daughter if he were to hurt Irwys.

Of course, the Head Servant’s daughter was living happily in the Tyrat Estate, untouched and unhurt with the Head Servant able to interact with her anytime he wanted.

It would be more accurate to say the Head Servant moved in with his family into the Tyrat Estate, even then, she was still a hostage.

That was why the Head Servant reluctantly agreed to work for Irwys.

“No, my Lord. We’ve investigated thoroughly, there are signs that the poison we fed them had worked. And because of that, a magician with the Osoric Estate had burnt their bodies.”

Exquisite-Class Swordsmen weren’t a joke.

Even one of them could take on one hundred men and win.

Because of that, they were very expensive.

And they were very arrogant.

They were so arrogant that it was a huge pain for the Tyrat Advisor to gather them into one place. Gathering them into one place and treating them as numbers didn't make them feel special at all, which hurt their ego, making it difficult, but it was done in the end.

But the enemy was a Saint-Class Magician, Radyn.

He was a disaster walking in human form.

So Irwys hired 50 Exquisite Swordsmen, emptying a quarter of his pocket.

Of course, following the swordsmen vs mage in close-combat rules.

Even if he was Saint-Class, he should be nothing in close-range combat unless he was also highly skilled in Sword Style, which was highly unlikely.

But for some reason, they had failed despite having this classic advantage.

Because of this, a stunning jolt ran through Irwys’s spine, his face contorting as he slammed his fist onto the table.

“What? Were they truly Exquisite-Class swordsmen? How could you not determine the validity of this?”

“My lord, it’s no deception that the hired swordsmen were Exquisite-Class.”

“Then how exactly were they captured?!”

“It looks like the Saint-Class Swordsman Lukyus Osoric Cinage intervened.”

“How? Weren’t there plans to lure him away?”

“I believe so, but from the looks of it, that also failed.”

“…”

Irwys pushed himself back, roughly leaning against his cushioned seat.

Everything had failed, he just had to accept that.

Despite being a generally bitter person, he was also the Head of the Tyrat House.

Anyone who dwells’s on their defeat isn’t worthy of being the head of anything.

So he spoke:

“What’s the Cinage House doing right now in response to this?”

His servant paused and looked up onto the ceiling.

He seemed to be recalling information.

“…The Cinage House itself isn’t taking action, but two of the branches, Osoric and the Aran branch are preparing some sort of counterattack.”

“A counterattack? Then you mean they’re here in the Capital?”

“That’s correct, my lord.”

“What’s the nature of the counterattack?”

Irwys asked.

“At first they prepared the captured swordsmen to be sent to the capital for a Royal hearing, but the assumed prisoners aren’t here, which means that the poison has already taken effect.”

“Hah, if they have no one to question, what else can they do?”

Irwys scoffed and gestured in a relaxed manner.

Since Irwys prepared an attack at the Osoric Estate which had two Saint-Class fighters and belonged to the prestigious Cinage House, he had to prepare countermeasures.

Poisoning the mercenaries, swordsmen and even the Tyrat Advisor was that very countermeasure.

Now that the prisoners weren’t alive, what else could they do?

Irwys had thought initially.

“My lord, they can still at least appeal to the Royal Court, if that’s appealed through the power of the Cinage House, a full investigation funded and executed by the Cinage House themselves may take place.”

Tch…

That’s true, even if there were no prisoners left, an investigation still can take place with the appeal of the Cinage House’s power.

“…Then, what do you suggest we do?”

Irwys asked his Head Servant.

His Head Servant paused for a moment to collect his thoughts, after a moment, he stood in attention and replied:

“There has been intel that the son of the Osoric Branch Family was brought to the capital. Because only the two branches are launching the counter-offensive instead of the entire House, and also concerning the daughter of the Aran house, I believe kidnapping both the children of the Osoric and Aran branches would prove useful as convincing tools to stop them.”

Kidnapping, huh?

Kidnapping the children of the branch families to stop them from fighting back.

Irwys did not object.

He had heard details of the child of the Aran Estate.

She had long blue hair and was very young…

“I see then. I approve of this plan. Kidnap them, and bring the girl to me.”

The Head Servant hid his disgust with a professional stone face.

He was probably thinking about what would happen if his daughter was in that position.

If that was the case, then the Head Servant wouldn’t hesitate to make an enemy of the Tyrat House.

Irwys Fynn Tyrat had peculiar fetishes, and the over extreme liking of children was only one of them.

But still, the servant would have to remind Irwys later that: ‘Look, since they are hostages, their value will be lost if you violate them.’

But that’s something the Head Servant will remind Irwys on a later date.

Also, disturbing fetishes wasn’t that unnatural in the Human Noble world.

Nobles in the Aorath Kingdom usually abuse their power which is extended to their kinks and such, because of this freedom, they could do anything they wanted.

The excessive liking of children was tame compared to the noble world’s general fetishes.

And those general fetishes were beyond human comprehension, almost beast-like.

The Noble World was a disgusting place.

“…Yes, my lord.”

With that said, the Head Servant walked out of the room to make preparations.

Part 2

“So this is the Capital City.”

I muttered under my breath, taking in the sights.

We had run out from the Noble District and into the outer walls, there were shops and buildings with different signs everywhere, people wearing common clothes loitered everywhere.

And occasionally, Demi-humans wearing slave collars walked beside merchants or people with rich-looking clothes.

On the side of the streets, there were street lights powered by magic stones set to turn on at night.

The roads were made out of stone bricks that looked very contemporary.

There were also the occasional adventurers that walked past us.

“Hah… Hah… Y-You… Aaah…!”

The person tightly gripping my hand was Elaina, Elaina Aran Cinage.

Since we ran from the Aran Estate to the outer districts, we were out of breath.

Aerich stood beside us, he looked on with a nonchalant expression on his face despite running with a heavy sword.

He didn’t look tired at all.

He was trained in endurance, so it’s only natural.

Of course, I only felt a little out of breath.

I looked over to Elaina, examining her.

First - Sweating, out of breath.

Second - Tightly gripping my hand for some reason

Third - Her buttoned-up shirt was untucked and messy, her skirt was similarly untidy.

Fourth - Her blue hair that was tied into a side ponytail was a little scrubbed from the run.

Oh well.

“Can you give us directions?”

I waited a minute or two giving her a chance to rest before asking her.

“A-Are you kidding me? How can I give you directions when I’ve never been outside!”

“Eh?”

Y-You’ve never been outside before?

What have you been doing with your life?

What’s a life without playing outside?

Do you play on some sort of device, an instrument? Board games?

“Didn’t you hear me? I’ve never gone outside ever in my life alone!”

She stomped her feet and shouted at me, attracting attention to other people while she was at it.

But after getting attention from bypassers, she gripped her hold on my hand even tighter.

Her face went red and she hid behind my back.

Ah, I’m beginning to understand her.

She’s one of those types of people who don’t enjoy interacting with others. I read about it in a book called “The Psychology of Creation” created by Julliet Mort discussing how each species acted and interacted.

Though research in this field still needs to be done.

Even so, it briefly describes the type of people who hate interaction with others.

Oh well, let’s be inconsiderate for once.

“Well then, if no one knows where to go, let’s go explore!”

“Aaaah?!”

—

I dragged Elaina towards the shopping district, as its name suggests, it was full of stalls.

Merchants gathered around here to sell their wares like fruits, vegetables, items, accessories, gadgets, anything and everything that could be found here.

Elaina, despite having a really bad and lazy attitude back at the Aran Estate was trembling and stiff, tilting her head rigidly as she hid behind my back.

Also, just before we all left to go outside, we were approached by a very fast running Runo Aran Cinage who gave each of us a bag of coins.

When I opened it up, I found out it filled with coins.

During mixed classes, I learnt that the coin denominations here were:

Tin - Copper - Iron - Silver - Gold - Platinum - King’s Coin

Tin was the least valuable and the King’s Coin was the most valuable.

They were all made of their respective metals but with the King’s Coin made of a mix of pure platinum and Gold with an intricate engraving of the Malignant-Slaying King on it.

The Malignant Slaying King was a hero from two hundred years ago that fought the Malignant King, defeating the Demon Lords on the way.

I read about the story in a book.

The coins found in the bags given to us by Lord Runo ranged from Copper to Gold.

Silver was something a peasant could make in an entire year.

God was something a peasant makes in an entire decade.

Platinum a century and a King’s Coin millennia.

So they were very valuable.

“Shopkeeper, can I buy 3 apples?”

Before I knew it, curiosity got the better of me and I tried out buying something for the first time in my life.

“Of course, that’ll be two tin coins.”

I-I didn’t have any tin coins…

I went through the coin bag and pulled out a copper coin which was one denomination higher.

“Here-“

The shopkeeper went through his bag to give some change, handing over a few pieces of Tin.

“Thank you for your patronage-“

“This isn’t the right change.”

I said as I pushed his hand back.

It’s not like I was ignorant of this, it’s indeed my first time buying but I did know how to do arithmetic, and I was taught by Radyn exclusively not to get scammed during mixed classes.

“-You’re off by 5 tin coins.”

I continued.

In response, the shopkeeper grinned.

“Pfft, alright kid, there aren’t many noble children who can calculate proper change or just assume the change given is correct, I guess you’re not an idiot. Here you go.”

He went through his bag and gave me the correct change.

…Does it make you happy to scam children by a few tin coins?

“Thank you.”

I said as I took three apples, taking a bite into one.

“Come again!”

Like hell we will.

“How did you know it wasn’t the correct change?”

As we walked through the shopping district looking at other wares, Elaina asked me that question.

“Because I was taught Arithmetic.”

I pointed my index finger up, similar to that how Radyn does during class.

“Is Arithmetic that important?”

Elaina was feeling a tiny bit more comfortable, standing beside me instead of behind asking me that.

“That’s right, the shopkeeper said that most noble children get scammed from their money because they can’t do arithmetic or trust the change too much. So listen when your home tutor teaches you, okay?”

“Okay.”

I lectured her on simple arithmetic as we walked out of the shopping district, entering the main road.

By the end of the lecture, she annoyingly sighed.

I think I went too far.

—

The main road was just a big road that connected to all the other districts.

There were buildings, cafes, restaurants, nothing interesting for now.

But the most notable spectacle was the adventurers guild.

The adventurer’s guild was a big building made out of rich and polished wood, it was about three stories tall and the roof was lined with silver had had the symbol of the Kingdom on it.

That symbol was a figure of a human.

As we walked closer, I noticed the door.

The door was engraved with fancy lines made from gold.

Isn’t this too sumptuous-looking for an adventurer’s guild?

Shouldn’t the door be almost broken and the walls as weak as sand?

This is nothing like the shabby and poor adventurer’s guild I read in the books.

Or perhaps it’s only like this because it’s the adventurer’s guild of the Capital.

“Alright, let’s go in.”

As I prepared to open the door, Elaina held me back.

“N-No!”

“What’s wrong?”

“There are people inside, I can’t-“

“They’re just people.”

I leaned my face closer to hers.

“Still!”

Elaina rotated her face away and tightly clutched my shoulder

Oh well.

My curiosity is greater than my sympathy.

I gently opened the door.

She protested by holding me back but that didn’t work.

There was a large reception with people standing behind desks, clearly guild receptionists. On a certain area, there was a board with papers pinned on them and the general adventuring population sitting around talking.

Because of the vast area, no one noticed us walking in.

Besides some employees.

“Welcome, are you lost? Do you want us to take you home?”

Despite seeing three children walk in, a female employee still professionally greeted us and immediately assumed we were lost.

Do lost children often come here?

“We’re just exploring!”

I said as I ran past the employee, who had a sweet smile on her face.

On the opposite side of the guild, there was a refreshment shop selling some sort of drink.

I dropped a bronze coin onto the counter.

“Three drinks please.”

After buying drinks, I looked to my side.

“Only employees allowed to walk up the stairs?”

Elaina muttered as she approached the sign in front of the staircase.

“Seems so.”

Aerich, who was silent up till now replied.

From the side, we heard muttering.

“-Look over there, some children are visiting.”

“-Really? Do I look good? Is my hair straight?”

“-I better look my best.”

“-The one with the sword looks the cutest, and that other boy next.”

They were saying some weird things.

We were on the opposite side of the guild, and this side was pretty isolated from the adventuring population, but if you looked over on the other side, there was a bunch of adventurers.

They were still muttering weird things.

“Hey, are we done here?”

Elaina grunted as she crossed her arms, she sat on a nearby seat with her back leaning on the chair.

Her position was that of an obtuse angle as she sat on the seat, not very lady-like and very lazy-looking.

It seems like she overthought how it’d be in the adventurers guild and got comfortable, therefore revealing her true feelings of laziness.

“No, we’re not.”

“Eeh?!”

I grabbed her hand and dragged her outside the adventurers guild.

—

There was nothing else interesting.

“Come on, it’s been a few hours, isn’t that enough?”

Her feet dragged as I approached the resident district.

“Of course not, not until we make friends with other children in the area.”

And so, we journeyed along towards the resident district.

—

The resident district was full of houses tightly packed together, it looked like people of the middle to low-class lived in this area.

I took out a map of the Capital I bought at the shopping district, mostly aimed towards foreigners or visitors like myself.

“…There should be a park over here, then we’ll take a shortcut. Into the alleyway.”

We took a turn into an alleyway between the houses.

It was dark and desolate, the magical lights seen on the main roads and streets weren’t here.

Of course, I lied about this shortcut.

“Come out, what do you want?”

The moment we left the adventurer’s guild, I sensed someone following us.

If they came out from the adventurer’s guild then following us must have been spontaneous and unplanned.

If unplanned, they are petty criminals.

If petty criminals and following children, kidnappers.

If they are kidnappers, are they working at the adventurer’s guild?

Spare money?

If so, they must also be strong fighters.

Strong fighters oughting for petty crime.

How sad.

These thoughts ran through my mind in a matter of seconds.

Also, I didn’t go into an alleyway for no reason.

First: I wanted to see how it feels like to be in the cliched situation of walking into an alleyway, only to be kidnapped.

Second: Maybe a hero will fall from the sky and save us!

The thing is, Papa gave me an item that makes a very scary loud noise when activated, so if anything bad happens all I have to do is press it and the guards will come running to help us.

So the first option was definitely okay.

Putting that aside, if they are planning to kidnap us, their motive is probably one of the two: First, sell us as slaves. Second, hold us for ransom.

It’s probably the second because of our noble-like clothes.

Oh well.

“Oho? Sharp senses.”

Surprisingly, the voice of the person following us was a female.

She was one of the adventurers chatting in the adventurer’s guild.

And from the roofs beside us, about 4 men jumped down.

“…Young Lord, step back.”

Aerich put me behind him, he drew his sword, facing the five kidnappers.

“Awawawa!”

Elaina’s face turned white, almost like a vampire. She also made weird sounds.

She completely hid perfectly behind my back.

“What’s this? Why does a kid have a sword? Did you mistake it for a stick?”

The lady took a few steps forward.

“What are you doing here?”

I said as I stood beside Aerich.

“Shouldn’t it be obvious? Think, kid, think. We’re going to kidnap you and hold you for ransom, look at your clothes, it’s clear that you belong to a very prestigious noble family, anyone who doesn’t follow kids like that is a failure as a criminal.”

“So you admit you’re a criminal?”

“Eh? Yeah, I guess so, now hand yourselves over or get seriously hurt.”

“Then what were you doing at the adventurer’s guild?”

I asked the woman criminal.

She replied with a carefree tone.

“Stupid kids or teenagers walk in occasionally and are completely full of themselves about adventuring, we wait at the adventurer’s guild and kidnap children like that.”

Alright, let’s think…

They work at the adventurer’s guild but normally sit inside waiting for children? Leaving the last bit aside, the fact that they won at the adventurer’s guild makes them strong, right?

Let’s not underestimate them.

Also, their modus operandi of kidnapping children who walk in the Adventurer’s guild? How sad.

So let’s go for one of the middle-weak spells in my arsenal.

“[Wind Push]!”

I raised my arm and cast an Intermediate non-lethal area-attack spell.

“What the-“

The five bandits were pushed back a few meters out by my spell.

Alright now, prepare for their counterattack. What will they do? It’s clear they don’t have any magicians in their ranks, if they did, they would have nullified it.

But if they did have magicians, then theirs would be below Intermediate-Class, though it wouldn’t make sense for someone to become an adventurer at Beginner-Class.

So it’s clear they’re all swordsmen.

Then: Of what style?

Sword, Spear, Dual, Assassin, Hand?

I’m expecting Exquisite-Class at best.

They’re currently a few meters away, it’d take about 5 seconds for them to reach me, making the woman in front of me the core enemy.

She doesn’t look like a magician and isn’t holding any weapons.

That man is holding a sword, the others have spears and daggers…

Wait, that other guy has a wand.

That means he’s a magician.

…Why didn’t you nullify my spell? Are you slow?

“Dammit, run! We can’t win against an Intermediate-Class Magician!”

The woman signalled to her buddies to run away.

…Huh?

Also, I’m a High-Class Magician, not Intermediate-Class

Let’s just refresh my mind.

Academy - Beginner - Intermediate - Exquisite - High - Saint - King - God

Those are the Class-Ranks.

Why are they running away from casting a spell from the third weakest class, aren’t they adventurers?

Are adventurers that weak?

No, they must be just a select few.

They said ‘We can’t win against an Intermediate-Class Magician.’

Which implies that they’re Beginner at most…

What about my heavy analysis of the situation? What are you going to do about this? I thought hard for about a few seconds to come up with plans!

“Haaah…”

I am heavily disappointed… I need to research into the power standards of adventurers.

Or my perception of them might shatter-

“Wow, that was amazing. How can you cast spells at your age?!”

Elaina looked at me with an admiring gaze.

I’m not good when it comes to praise. And I’m certainly not feeling like receiving praise after getting disappointed like this.

“Well, Aerich’s Papa taught me when I was younger-“

“When you were younger? How’s that possible? I tried casting magic when I was 5 years old but nothing happened. I did the ‘haaah’ and ‘aaaa’ thing, but that didn’t work.”

Elaina interjected and commented.

“Then that means you didn’t really understand the theory of the spell you were casting, you see-“

I went on a Theory of Magic lecture, the second lecture of the day.

We walked out of the alleyway as I continued to lecture her with the content.

We walked towards the noble’s district, and I was still speaking.

And instead of looking annoyed as she did with my first lecture, she was listening intently with a curious expression.

“-But if you think of it in the concept of elements and manipulation magic, you can technically cast two different spells at once, like a fire spell on one hand and a water spell on the other.”

I didn’t stop talking, not even after we reached the gates of the Aran Estate.

Right now after walking back to the Aran Estate, we were sitting on the bench in the courtyard.

“But isn’t it difficult to do that?”

“I’m sure if you practice enough anyone can do it.”

I spoke like Radyn as how he spoke to me during class.

I think I’m imitating Radyn’s lecture skills.

The bench on the courtyard felt very nice and stable, its joints were made out of pure black metal and the base of polished birch wood.

With Aerich sitting beside me on my right and Elaina to my left, I felt ecstatic as I relayed all the information about magic I’ve kept to myself.

I made theories of different types of magic, how it came to be and disproving what I thought was wrong with other theories.

I talked about my perception of the use of magic and the other types of magic I read in books but never got to tell anyone about.

Giving all this information to someone felt great.

There was nowhere throughout the lecture where my smile faltered, my expression was all happy.

As I rambled on, a voice called out to me.

“That’s an interesting conversation you’re having there, I don’t know if you should be talking like that when you’re only 10, you remind me of my old University Professor. Elaina, did you enjoy your stay outside? How was it? Tell me in great detail.”

I know that voice, it was Runo Aran Cinage.

Hearing this voice, Elaina silently stood up and walked towards it.

Her face was glaring at the ground.

“Argggh!”

…And she attacked him.

A-And well deserved! I was in the middle of a lecture!

Go Elaina!

“W-What are you doing-“

Because she was only 10 years old, she could only punch Lord Runo’s gut, though it was ineffective.

“It’s not like I minded going outside but don’t force me to do it again!”

“You mean you enjoyed it?”

“Hmmrph!”

“You did, didn’t you?!”

“Urrk.”

Elaina looked very defiant. She refused to answer, instead, she made some weird noises.

Some sort of distorted sense of pride?

“Did you really?!”

“Yes! I did! I enjoyed it! Now shut up!”

After that, she hunched her shoulder and gave a very pouty look as she stomped into the house.

Aerich followed her, leaving both Lord Runo and myself alone.

Lord Runo sighed as he looked on, taking a seat beside me.

“You have my thanks, Reign.”

Runo crossed his thighs, putting his arm over my shoulder.

“What did I do?”

“It seems that my daughter enjoyed her stay outside for the first time in her life, no matter how many times I tried to convince her to go outside and play she never listened.”

I see the issue now.

Well, I saw it already.

She’s basically a shut-in.

“-And then you come and get her out with a tiny bit of force, I guess that’s the power of children.”

Runo continued, relaxing on the bench.

It looks like a very heavy burden was lifted from his shoulders.

“You’re thinking too highly of me, Lord Runo.”

“The fact that you can speak in such a fake way is a reason to think highly of you.”

Runo grinned as he scrubbed my hair with his hands.

“I guess so, hehe…”

I dropped the noble-like facade and relaxed on his arm.

“Then, do you want a reward?”

“Yes, I’d like to marry your daughter.”

“Don’t be unreasonable.”

That was a joke.

Obviously.

“Then… Can I borrow your library?”

“Hm? Of course, I don’t think that’s much of a reward but go ahead. You can use the books in my Study too if you want.”

Runo stood up and adjusted his clothing.

“Thank you very much!”

I childishly saluted, putting my hand horizontally to my forehead and clapping my boots before running into the Aran Estate.

As I ran inside I heard Lord Runo’s voice.

“You did it wrong, you have to tilt your hand a little bit!”

He laughed as he gave his own salute.

With that, my life in the Capital and the Aran Estate began.

---